Monday, 18 August 2014

In a recent blog post (found here), Antonio Socci, the author of The Fourth Secret of Fatima, notes the importance of a recently published official biography of Sr. Lucia from the Carmelites of Coimbra (the convent where the Portuguese nun lived and died), titled "Um caminho sob o olhar de Maria" (A Path Under the Gaze of Mary). This explosive new text contains several important writings of Sr. Lucia which were until now previously unpublished. Socci cites a portion of this text which appears to be hugely important in relation to my theory that the alleged "attachment" to the Third Secret is related to St John Paul II's reputed address at Fulda, Germany in 1980. It concerns a vision which Sr. Lucia had which helped her to overcome her fear about whether or not she should write down the content of the Third Secret:

THE UNPUBLISHED PIECE

Towards 16:00 hours on January 3rd, 1944, in the convent’s chapel, before the Tabernacle, Lucia asked Jesus to let her know His will: ‘I then feel that a friendly hand, affectionate and maternal, touches my shoulder.’

It is ‘the Mother of Heaven’ who says to her: ‘be at peace and write what they command you to, but not that which you were given to understand about its meaning,’ intending to allude to the meaning of the vision that the Virgin herself had revealed to her.

Right after – says Sr. Lucia – ‘I felt my spirit flooded by a light-filled mystery which is God and in Him I saw and heard: the point of the flame-like lance which detaches, touches the axis of the earth and it [the earth] shakes: mountains, cities, towns and villages with their inhabitants are buried. The sea, rivers and clouds leave their bounds, they overflow, flood and drag with them into a whirlpool, houses and people in a number unable to be counted; it is the purification of the world from the sin it is immersed in. Hatred, ambition, cause detructive wars. Afterward I felt in the increased beating of my heart and in my spirit a quiet voice which said: ‘in time, one faith, one baptism, one Church, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic. Heaven in eternity!’ This word, ‘Heaven,’ filled my heart with peace and happiness, so much so that, almost without realizing it, I continued to repeat for some time: Heaven, Heaven!’

That is how she was given the strength to write the Third Secret.

(Thanks to Johnsp for the translation from Italian)

The above newly published text mentions a catastrophic earthquake, followed by the trembling of mountains, which in turn leads to a hugely destructive tsunami, followed by war - the exact sequence of events that I argue in my book Unveiling the Apocalypse is depicted in the Bible itself, concerning the fall of Babylon and the "huge mountain, burning with fire" being thrown into the sea in Rev 8:8, in relation to a potential mega-tsunami caused by the collapse of a volcano in the Canary Islands. It should be worth revisiting the contents of an earlier post on the subject of Fulda, which I will copy below:

Prior to the release of the Third Secret in the year 2000, many commentators looked to some words attributed to Pope John Paul II on Fatima in an attempt to gain some insight into its content. The German magazine Stimme des Glaubens reported that the pope had commented on the Third Secret during a conference in Fulda, Germany in 1980. The most striking component of this report was the words: "it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this: if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the earth, and that from one moment to the next millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much desired." The language used here, which tells a sudden and abrupt flooding of "whole areas of the earth" by the ocean - an event which will kill "millions", can only describe the aftermath of a mega-tsunami. The deadiest such event in recorded history was that of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed the lives of around 230,000 people after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. In order to claim "millions" of lives, this event would have to be on a vastly larger scale, and concentrated on densely populated areas. The Indian Ocean tsunami is possibly the greatest in size that can be generated by an earthquake - anything larger can only be caused by massive landslides, such as that of Lituya Bay, Alaska in 1958, which reached a height of 524 metres (but given the confined geography of the lake the effects of this mega-tsunami was limited to a small area). It is these landslide-generated events, known as mega-tsunamis, that produce waves of such devastating heights. And mega-tsunamis with the capacity to cross oceans can only be generated by large-scale volcanic collapses.

The relevant text of the Fulda conference reported in Stimme des Glaubens can be found below:

The Holy Father was asked, "What about the Third Secret of Fatima? Should it not have already been published by 1960?" Pope John Paul II replied: "Given the seriousness of the contents, my predecessors in the Petrine office diplomatically preferred to postpone publication so as not to encourage the world power of Communism to make certain moves."On the other hand, it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this: if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the earth, and that from one moment to the next millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much desired."The Pope continued: "Many wish to know simply from curiosity and a taste for the sensational, but they forget that knowledge also implies responsibility. They only seek the satisfaction of their curiosity, and that is dangerous if at the same time they are not disposed to do something, and if they are convinced that it is impossible to do anything against evil."At this point the Pope grasped a Rosary and said: "Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray, pray, and ask for nothing more. Leave everything else to the Mother of God."The Holy Father was then asked: "What is going to happen to the Church?"He answered: "We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ … With your and my prayer it is possible to mitigate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can the Church be effectively renewed. How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from blood! This time, too, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong and prepared, and trust in Christ and His Mother, and be very, very assiduous in praying the Rosary."

It must be noted however that there is some dispute as to the legimacy of the Stimme des Glaubens report. Antonio Socci, the author of The Fourth Secret of Fatima, stated in issue 86 of The Fatima Crusader that the Vatican Press Office and Cardinal Ratzinger denied that this meeting took place (see here). However rather curiously, the most recent publication from sources inside the Vatican acknowledges that it did in fact take place. In his book The Last Secret of Fatima, Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State admits that John Paul II did in fact say these words (p48). The Fatima Network website is similarly assured that the Fulda conference did in fact take place, stating:

This report was originally published in German in the October 1981 issue of Stimme des Glaubens. It is given as a verbatim report of the meeting between His Holiness John Paul II and a select group of German Catholics at Fulda during his visit to Germany the previous November. The preface to the article states, "We know the name of the reporter and also that the document is authentic." This translation was made by Rev. M. Crowdy for Approaches Magazine, edited by Mr. Hamish Fraser of Scotland. It was translated from the Italian magazine published in Rome by Father Francis Putti. Both magazines are worthy of our trust. (See the full text here).

So there seems to be some ongoing confusion as to the reality behind these events. Whatever the truth is behind the above words attributed to John Paul II at Fulda, they tie in remarkably well with the various other predictions of a volcano-generated mega-tsunami. We must also question why, given that Cardinal Bertone would undoubtedly know the contents of any "hidden text" of the Third Secret, he did not refute that the Fulda conference took place altogether. If the "hidden text" of the Third Secret did not contain any references to the oceans flooding vast sections of the earth, then it would be immediately obvious to the Cardinal that the Fulda conference was a complete fabrication made by the German press. It would be easier to dismiss that it ever took place rather than attempt to explain the discrepancies between these words and the published text of the Third Secret. Does this implicitly suggest that there is some truth behind the Third Secret containing reference to a future mega-tsunami style event?We also need to take into account the fact that Pope Benedict XVI wrote the forward to Cardinal Bertone's book, so would undoubtedly have been aware that it included reference to the Fulda conference. It would be highly unlikely that he would fail to correct Cardinal Bertone on this matter if he thought it did not take place. So either the pope glanced over this section (again highly unlikely), or he came across some information which changed his opinion as to whether John Paul II did indeed make these comments at Fulda.

Looking back to the recently published text by the Carmelites of Coimbra, which apparently depicts the aftermath of the angel striking the earth with his flaming sword (or "spear" in this translation) it also appears to closely resemble the prophetic words of Blessed Elena Aliello:

The justice of Our Father is most offended. Men live in their obstinacy of sin. The wrath of God is near. Soon the world will be afflicted with great calamities, bloody revolutions, frightful hurricanes, and the overflowing of streams and the seas’. ‘Cry out until the priests of God lend their ears to my voice, to advise men that the time is near at hand, and if men do not return to God with prayers and penances, the world will be overturned in a new and more terrible war. Arms most deadly will destroy peoples and nations!

One of the seers at Kibeho, Anathalie Mukamazimpaka,also had a vision of some sort of chastisement involving the crumbling of mountains:

"I saw mountains crashing
into each other," said Anathalie. "Stones coming out of the earth, nearly as if
they were angry. I saw storms crashing against each other and fire coming from
them. I don't know what this means. I was told that people are causing this and
that it is coming."

It should also be worth revisiting some of my older material concerning the mega-tsunami threat to the East Coast of the Americas below:

Amongst the various other startling images depicted in the Book of Revelation, the curious scene of a "great mountain, burning with fire" being thrown into the sea appears to be granted a certain significance. The Apocalypse uses recapitulation as a literary device to highlight areas of especial importance. The battle of Armageddon, for example, is referred to in several different places. The bizarre scene of a mountain being cast into the sea in Rev 8:8 is recapitulated again by the angel throwing a great millstone into the sea in Rev 18:21, connecting this event with the fall of "Babylon" - the ruling world-power in the eschatological age.

The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. (Rev 8:8)

But what could this scene represent? Various preterist scholars, such as D.E Aune, and more recently Elaine Pagels in her popular 2012 book Revelations, argue that this passage contains a description of the eruption of Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii in 79AD. But as leading Revelation academic G.K Beale points out, this particular volcanic eruption can not be the sole point of reference, as the verse in question is clearly based on chapter 51 of the Book of Jeremiah, which describes the casting down of “a burning mountain” and the destruction of Babylon in the sea:

“Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares the LORD, which destroys the whole earth; I will stretch out my hand against you, and roll you down from the crags, and make you a burnt mountain. No stone shall be taken from you for a corner and no stone for a foundation, but you shall be a perpetual waste, declares the LORD. “Set up a standard on the earth; blow the trumpet among the nations; prepare the nations for war against her...

(Jer 51:25-27)

“How Babylon is taken, the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations! The sea has come up on Babylon; she is covered with its tumultuous waves.

(Jer 51:41-42)

Chapter 51 of the Book of Jeremiah then concludes with a passage which is alluded to again later in the Book of Revelation:

And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words, and say, ‘O LORD, you have said concerning this place that you will cut it off, so that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, and it shall be desolate forever.’ When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, and say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her, and they shall become exhausted.’”

(Jer 51:61-64)

Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more"...

(Rev 18:21)

The majority of scholars thus recognise that the burning mountain being cast into the sea in the Apocalypse is the exact same event which is symbolised by the angel casting a millstone into the sea to signify how the eschatological world power "Babylon" is to be destroyed. As Beale states: "the burning mountain cast into the sea refers to the judgment of a wicked kingdom. This kingdom is to be identified as 'Babylon', 'the great city' of Revelation 11-18, which holds sway over the evil world system. (Beale, G.K. The Book of Revelation p476).So the "great mountain, burning with fire" is widely recognised by Revelation scholars as a description of a volcanic eruption.But how could a volcano be thrown into the sea? And how would this bring about the fall of the ruling world empire at the end-time? I'll post a short extract from my book below:On the 12th of October 2000, the BBC's flagship documentary series Horizon aired a programme that was to cause a considerable amount of controversy in the world of geophysics. Subtitled "Mega-tsunami: Wave of Destruction", the documentary elaborated how the volcano Cumbre Vieja on the Canary island of La Palma poses an enormous risk to the eastern coastline of the Americas. The documentary was based on the combined research of S.N. Ward of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California and S.J. Day of the Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre at University College, London, who hoped to prove that Cumbre Vieja has the potential to cause one of the greatest natural disasters ever known to human civilisation. Ward and Day's research shows how the inside of Cumbre Vieja is honeycombed with fissures caused by the rising of molten magma heating and vaporizing water which then erodes the inside of the volcano. This phenomenon has severely weakened the internal structure of the volcano, making it extremely unstable. During its last eruption in 1949, the southern volcano caused a massive crack to appear, and the entire western portion of Cumbre Vieja slipped a few metres towards the Atlantic Ocean.In 2001, Ward and Day put forward a scientific paper showing how that the entire western flank will eventually give way, possibly even during its next eruption; sending 500 thousand million tonnes of rock crashing into the ocean. Ward and Day's research, which took other examples of this phenomenon into account, suggested that the impact of this "lateral collapse" would generate a colossal wave – dubbed a "mega-tsunami", which could reach a local amplitude of between 650-1500 metres. This wave would then rapidly travel westwards reaching a speed of approximately 720kph. Although it would diminish in size by the time it made landfall on the eastern seaboard of America, it could still be as high as 50 metres (to give a sense of perspective, the statue of liberty is 93 metres tall), devastating everything in its wake up to 25km inland.In comparison with this projected scenario, the Indian Ocean tsunami that occurred on 26th December 2004, reached a height of only 24m at Bandeh Aceh – the region worst affected by the disaster, which was totally obliterated. If this event unfolds in the manner that Ward and Day have projected, then this "mega-tsunami" would be the greatest natural disaster in recorded history. (Unveiling the Apocalypse pp148-149)

About Me

As part of research for my book Unveiling the Apocalypse: Prophecy in Catholic Tradition, I studied the Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic languages before graduating in 2006 with First Class honours. My book is the product of around ten years of original research. This blog is intended as a means of supplementing the material presented in the book by providing relevant up-to-date information.